Digital Storytelling

Digital Storytelling is the combination of narrated text (voice over), images (either still or video clips), and music in a digital form. The outcome is a short 3-5 minute "movie."

Objectives

  1. Identify digital storytelling techniques.
  2. Create Digital Stories correlated to state frameworks.
  3. Develop lesson plan sketches for a current or future lesson utilizing Digital Storytelling with students.
  4. Share strategies developed and products prepared with the group.

Examples

Mabry Middle School Film Festival
Community Stories
Clips
Digital Storytelling Examples from Walled Lake Consolidated Schools
Digital Directors Guild
Ican Film Festival
Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling

What makes a good digital story?

Elements of Good Digital Storytelling Discussion
7 Main Elements of Digital Storytelling

Curriculum Connections

Digital Storytelling in the Classroom
How to Use Digital Storytelling in Your Classroom Discussion
Arkansas Frameworks
Lesson Plan Sketches From This Workshop (add your lesson sketches to this page for sharing)

Adobe Digital Kids Club

The Adobe Digital Kids Club is an amazing site full of great resources for all things digital with kids...photography, video, storytelling. You will find lesson plans, tips, tutorials and more. The section on digital storytelling is amazing. There are no examples yet, but the resources make up for it.
Adboe Digital Kids
Seven Steps for Digital Storytelling
Tips for the Classroom

Digitales

Digitales: The Art of Telling Digital Stories is the premier digital storytelling site. There are many tools here to help you create digital stories.Digitales

Locating Image, Video, Audio Sources Online

First, a word about licensing ...There is a big difference in using pictures and audio for student use in the classroom and posting that work on the Internet. What will work for one may not work for the other. To play it safe, you neeed to look for sources with the Creative Commons License or shared license that you may re-use. Searching Google images is not a good option. The sources below will get you started. Remember to document each source used, so you can give credit at the end of your story. A word to the wise...remember we are using this in education and most people contributing to these sites are not educators. Always check out the sites before allowing students to use them. Better yet, with younger students you need to download a selection for them to choose from.

Photo Sources

FlickrStorm - Searches only the Creative Commons section of Flickr which is legal for you to use. You may then save the pictures to a tray to you can save them as a batch.
Openphoto

Audio Sources

ccMixter

More Media Sources

Finding Media for Your Story
Copyright Friendly Images and Sounds

Resources


Storyboard Examples

Storyboard template 1
Storyboard template 2
Kids' Vid:Scripting Your Movie Online Storyboarding Tool

Checklists/Rubrics

RubiStar
Digital Media Scoring Guide
Project Based Learning Checklist

Tools


PhotoStory 3

PhotoStory 3 is free software from Microsoft for using still images to combine with text, recorded voice, and music. You can create your own music within PhotoStory 3 or use your own. Voice recording is done within the program only. Transitions and effects make the still images come alive. This is a very easy program for kids of all ages.
Download PhotoStory3
PhotoStory Step by Step
StoryTubes
Primary Access

VoiceThread

VoiceThread is a new web 2.0 tool that is essentially an online media album that can contain still images, video, and documents. Visitors can comment on the VoiceThread media through voice, text, video, and doodling. Conversations are held in one place for visitors to see. A VoiceThread can be embeded into a wiki or blog, so parents can see student's work easily. Not only is this a useful tool for digital storytelling, but for assessment, research, feedback, critical thinking, etc. The possibilities are endless.
VoiceThread (main site)
Ed.VoiceThread (secure site for educators, not free)
VoiceThread 4 Education Wiki contains suggestions and examples of using VoiceThread in the classroom.
VoiceThreads in the Classroom
1 Minute VoiceThread is a VoiceThread describing how to create a VoiceThread.
Comment Moderation is a Voice Thread explaining comment moderation.
VoiceThread Help for Educators contains suggestions and ideas for using VoiceThread in the classroom.
Using VoiceThread for Digital Conversations
Examples
Great Book Stories (example)
Interpreting the Past (2nd grade example)
Global Warming (example)
http://voicethread.com/share/3352/

MovieMaker

MovieMaker is another free program from Microsoft. It uses still images or movie clips along with text, voice, and music to create a movie. All music must be imported into MovieMaker. Voice can be either imported or recorded within the program. Importing and editing video is easy, and by using the transitions, effects and text features your movie looks quite professional.

Download Movie Maker
Download Movie Maker Fun Packs for great collections of extras. Creativity Fun Pack, Winter Fun Pack, Winter Fun Pack
Windows Movie Maker Tutorials

Audacity

Audacity is a free open-source software for recording and editing sound. Unfortunately, Audacity does not export MP3 files as it is. However, all you have to do is download the Lame Encoder, and you can export to your heart's content. All directions and software can be found at the links below.
Audacity
Lame Encoder

Other Tools for Storytelling

ToonDoo (create cartoons)
Blabberize (talking pictures)

Equipment

The web cam we used in the workshop was the Logitech Quickcam Communicate Deluxe
Headsets - Logitech Premium with noice cancelling


For More Information on Digital Storytelling try these.

50 Ways to Tell a Story
Digital Storytelling Cookbook
Center for Digital Storytelling
Tech4Learning Digitales Storykeepers (article)
Art of Digital Storytelling (article)